Beckett dominates as Red Sox top Angels

Oct 4, 2007 - 3:45 AM
By Mike Petraglia
PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer
BOSTON (Ticker) -- Josh Beckett tossed a shutout to close out
the World Series in 2003 for the Florida Marlins. Four years
later he finally made it back to the postseason, and came up
with the same result.

Beckett tossed a complete-game shutout to lead the Boston Red
Sox to a 4-0 victory over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in
Game One of the American league Division Series on Wednesday.

David Ortiz and Kevin Youkilis homered against John Lackey for
the Red Sox, who host Game Two of the best-of-five series here
on Friday after a scheduled off-day on Thursday.

Beckett (1-0) allowed a leadoff hit to Chone Figgins opening the
game before completely shutting down the Angels lineup.
Figgins, who advanced on two groundouts, was the only runner to
reach third base.

"The story tonight is Beckett," Angels manager Mike Scioscia
said. "The guy pitched an incredible ballgame. We didn't have
many good looks at him. I thought John, as the game went on,
settled down and pitched well but we need more batter's box
offense, obviously."

The 27-year-old Beckett retired 19 in a row after Figgins' hit,
and threw first-pitch strikes to 15 straight batters at one
point en route to striking out eight batters and throwing 83 of
his 108 pitches for strikes.

"(Catcher Jason) Varitek did an unbelievable job," Beckett said.
"We had some great defensive plays behind me and we got some
timely hits."

Beckett was the lone 20-game winner in the majors this season
and entered the game 2-0 with a 2.16 ERA in four career starts
against the Angels.

"He was strike-one all night and didn't give us a chance to put
him in a situation where he had to worry about baserunners so he
took care of business pretty well," Angels outfielder Garret
Anderson said.

Beckett allowed just four hits on Wednesday and no walks en
route to his third career postseason victory and became the
first Red Sox pitcher to throw a complete-game shutout in
October since Luis Tiant blanked Cincinnati, 6-0, in Game One of
the 1975 World Series.

"I was ahead of a lot of guys and they have a lot of guys who
foul a lot of pitches off and I didn't want to get wrapped up in
trying to strike a lot of guys out because those are the
at-bats that will end up killing your pitch count and you're out
after 5 1/3 (innings) because you've got 120 pitches," Beckett
said. "I just tried to get outs as quick as possible."

Lackey, who led the American League with a 3.01 ERA this season,
entered Wednesday's game 0-2 with an 8.38 ERA in two starts at
Fenway during the regular season and immediately saw his
struggles continue.

"That's what happens when you go first in a rotation," Lackey
said. "You don't have a lot of room for error. For the most
part, I've done OK but you've got to tip your cap to Josh
tonight. He pitched an excellent game and I didn't pitch well
enough to keep us in the game."

Two batters into the game, Lackey left a 2-1 fastball up to
Youkilis, who drilled it into the second row of the "Green
Monster" seats in left-center field for his first career
postseason hit and home run.

"I think every time Josh takes the ball, we feel like he has
something special going," Youkilis said. "He has such great
stuff. He pitches so well here at Fenway Park. I think every
time he touches the ball, we know something good can happen."

The Red Sox collected two more hits in the first but could not
push another run across.

Lackey (0-1), who allowed nine hits and four runs in six
innings, ran into trouble again in the third.

"John, early in the game, getting early-count strikes was
tough," Scioscia said. "He was trying to get back in the counts
and it's too good of an offense for you to be behind as he was.
The way Beckett was throwing the ball tonight, runs were going
to be at a premium, and we didn't get any."

Youkilis was again at the heart of a rally when he doubled down
the left field line with one out. Ortiz followed with his ninth
career postseason homer, tying Jason Varitek for the all-time
lead in club history. The two-run blast deep into the
grandstands in right field built the Red Sox lead to 3-0.

The three runs were more than enough for Beckett, who
established his fastball early. The righthander looked to be in
the form that earned him 2003 World Series MVP honors with the
Florida Marlins.

"They're not similar," Beckett said comparing his 2003 triumph
to Wednesday's win. "They're similar because of the results, but
I don't really think anything else is similar. I think I got a
lot of ground balls tonight. I got a lot of fly balls that
night. It was a good game."

The win was Boston's first in the postseason since October 27,
2004, when they finished off a World Series sweep of the St.
Louis Cardinals.

"I think we played a real crisp game, faced one of the better
pitchers in the league," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said.
"You can get a little keyed up on games like tonight. And our
guys really took the professional approach."

GDawg This series is a wash. Boston will march straight through to another World Series Championship. For the first time in Massachusetts history we are gonna have a Super Bowl and World Series champions in the same year !!! New England ROCKS !!!!

ALAT BOSTON PLAYOFFS - SCORING UPDATETWO-RUN HOME RUN BY DAVID ORTIZ (1) TO RIGHT WITH 1 OUT IN THE 3RD OFF JOHN LACKEY SCORED KEVIN YOUKILIS.CURRENT SCORE: LA ANGELS 0, BOSTON 3DUE UP FOR BOSTON: M RAMIREZ (1.000, 1-FOR-1)

ALAT BOSTON PLAYOFFS - SCORING UPDATESOLO HOME RUN BY KEVIN YOUKILIS (1) TO LEFT CENTER WITH 1 OUT IN THE 1ST OFF JOHN LACKEY.CURRENT SCORE: LA ANGELS 0, BOSTON 1DUE UP FOR BOSTON: D ORTIZ (.000, 0 HR, 0 RBI)